Wall Street sluggish on trade concerns; Apple, Amazon lift Nasdaq

By Shreyashi Sanyal

(Reuters) - The S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average were little changed on Friday as jitters over ongoing trade talks between the United States and other major economies weighed, but gains in Apple and Amazon lifted the Nasdaq.

Hampering a rally in U.S. stocks early this week was a report that President Donald Trump was ready to impose tariffs on $200 billion more of Chinese goods as soon as a public comment period on the plan ends next week.

The United States is also working to settle differences on a pact to modernize the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) by a Friday deadline.

Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said, "We're not there yet" and added the country was looking for a good deal, not any deal.

"Traction gained from negotiations with Mexico and Canada in the past couple of weeks are leading to some optimism ... what we are seeing is light trade ahead of the Labor day holiday weekend," said Steven Violin, senior vice president at F.L.Putnam Investment in Wellesley, Massachusetts.

At 11:28 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 38.24 points, or 0.15 percent, at 25,948.68, the S&P 500 was down 2.26 points, or 0.08 percent, at 2,898.87 and the Nasdaq Composite was up 15.48 points, or 0.19 percent, at 8,103.84.

The main indexes are still near record levels, coming off a solid earnings season and supported by data pointing to a strong U.S. economy.

Apple rose 1.1 percent, extending its gains for the seventh day, while Amazon.com rose 0.4 percent, topping $2,000 for the second day in a row to renew its push to join Apple in the $1 trillion market cap club.

Seven of the 11 major S&P 500 sectors were lower, with the energy sector leading declines with a 0.83 percent drop.

The financial index fell 0.45 percent with JPMorgan down 1 percent, Goldman Sachs off 0.3 percent and Citigroup falling 0.9 percent.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a 1.13-to-1 ratio on the NYSE. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners for a 1.25-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P index recorded 24 new 52-week highs and one new low, while the Nasdaq recorded 76 new highs and 21 new lows.

(Reporting by Shreyashi Sanyal in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)